The 100 Best Turbografx CD Games

Welcome to our Top 100 Best Turbografx CD games. Now, for anyone new to the site we follow a set of rules for all our lists. We aim to represent the best of all genre's, we try to limit the number of sequels included to allow more underrated games to shine, and also tend to avoid games that have been ported from earlier systems that don't use the hardware to its full potential. The best Import games are allowed, but only when they're import friendly and don't require an FAQ to play.

Thanks and enjoy the list!

50

Pop N' Magic

2-player co-operative platform game in the vein of titles like Bubble Bobble where you have to clear each screen of enemies before moving on. Pop N' Magic has you turning the bad guys into coloured orbs, and then throwing the orbs into each other to clear the screens.

Platform game with similarities to Bionic Commando. Fausette Amour gives you a melee strike, magic to use, and a grappling hook to swing yourself up to higher platforms. Level design here is pretty respectable overall, and the grappling hook is a cool weapon to master, as you get some limited invincibility when swinging upwards that allows you to bounce on enemies (a la Sonic the Hedgehog). Its a little slow at times, but the high level of presentation (with nice cut scenes), good graphics, and grappling gameplay make it worth trying.

Here's very respectable top-down rally racing game with good handling and lots of different stages. The game's focus is mainly on time trials, with you attempting to try to beat your best times, a shadow of your best race runs through the courses for you to try to beat which is good for giving you a visual indication of how you're doing and where you're going wrong.

This is a puzzle game where the aim is to peck away at the ground in an attempt to cause the enemies to sink into the water. Splash Lake seems deceivingly simple at first, but as you progress the levels become cleverer and require more active puzzle solving. On top of the puzzle solving the core gameplay of jumping over enemies and pecking the ground is actually quite fun in its own right, making the game a playable and accessible experience.

Attractive looking vertical shmup with 2-player co-op support. Psychic Storm is a polished title with good presentation and lots of enemies to shoot, the game gives you a decent selection of weapons and allows you to transform your ship into a huge powerful bug for a limited time. Its fun and polished, if not particularly remarkable.

Gain Ground is a port of a Sega arcade game that was a mixture of the action and strategy genre's. The game is played like a top-down shooter, but your aim is to either clear each stage of enemies, or get all of your team of soldiers to the exit. The interesting thing about Gain Ground is that at the beginning of the stage you can choose from three different characters each with different strengths, and as the game progresses you can rescue new characters by picking them up in the stages and bringing them to the exit. Due to all the different abilities, strength's, and weaknesses of each character a certain amount of strategy is involved, with you needing to make an informed decision on which character is best suited to the job at hand. The game would have placed higher, but unfortunately this version is missing the enjoyable 2-player co-operative feature.

With this the Wonder Boy team decided to go with with a back to basics approach and released a game more akin to the original Wonder Boy than the later adventure flavoured releases. Monster Lair is a fairly simplistic arcade action game that focus' on classic platforming and shooting action. The 2-player co-op is fun, and there's are points multipliers to keep you focused on the gameplay at hand. This version is better than the Mega Drive port, as it has all the levels, and better animation.

Exile is an action focused JRPG which switches between a top down view for the overworld and villages, and a side on view with platformer gameplay for the dungeons. The game has quite good presentation for its time with cut scenes and voiced dialogue, and due to the well liked US company Working Designs handling the translation (a company known for putting in more effort than most) actually has a decent English dub, almost unheard of during this time. The game is noticeably superior to the Mega Drive version, with better presentation and a higher quality translation. Avoid the sequel, its unfortunately a broken mess.

Arcade action game ported from the Capcom arcade machine. Chiki Chiki Boys has you jumping and slashing your way through ruins and forests one minute, and flying through the sky or swimming under the ocean the next. It gives you a sword, and some limited magic abilities to use along the way, and has a good amount of charm too. Whilst this does not have all of the minor adventuring additions added to the Mega Drive port, unlike that version this actually retains the 2-player co-operative play.

Respectable horizontally scrolling shooter based on the Macross license. The power-up system here is based on a points system which kind of works like cash, the better you do in the stages, the more experience you gain and the better weapons you can purchase between levels. The gameplay also has a few interesting elements here and there, such as the boss battles which have your craft turning into a mech that you rotate left and right (much like Forgotten Worlds). The game starts off slow and takes a while to get going, but it picks up a lot during the later stages and the power-up system keeps you on your toes during these early levels, giving you added incentive to concentrate on shooting down all enemies.